FarmVille Pic of the Day: Joelr's Floating Farm Illusion is king of the hill

FarmVille landscape designer Joelr is literally king of the hill and top of the heap, thanks to his "Floating Uphill illusion [sic]" farm. With all the awesome 3D looking farms out there, it's easy to forget that what you see is actually flat, and that it takes a lot of creativity and imagination to pull off any kind of depth in these landscapes.

Central to Joelr's bag of tricks is clever positioning. The "shadow" that allows the top of his hill to float is obviously made of black hay bales.The illusion of rounded hillsides is created by putting all the farm plots on a diagonal. Basically, you put one down and keep scooting each one a bit more over than the previous one. When you get enough of these off-kilter, the edges start to appear curved. To give the effect even more of a boost, the fences bordering the hillsides are 'stacked' higher on the top than on the bottom, while the bottom has more pieces. (Remember, there is no real stacking on FarmVille!)

It's all about layers, people -- basic visual engineering. In fact, methods such as this are great, because you can use the same techniques over and over again. There are no fancy items here, aside for decorative purposes. I'd like to see someone rework this so that it looks like a giant UFO saucer beaming up cows.

BONUS: Check out this interview to learn more about Joelr and the creation of this farm.

Are you impressed? Because we certainly are. What else do you think would work for a floating hill illusion? Sound off in the comments.Add Comment

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